1 .

By saying they face a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity I assume that they are talking about the potential for profit and growth. However, from this case it doesnt seem thatM a r t h a , t h e p r e s i d e n t o f T r a p E a s e h a d d o n e e n o u g h r e s e a r c h i n t o h e r m a r k e t t o realistically assess whether the demand for her product would be there. First she would need to decide what customers want and need. Do they want or need the safety and extra features that the Trap-Ease delivers? It seems that Martha and the investors were too focused on how amazing their product was and not the actual needs o r w a n t s o f t h e customers that would be buying it. If Trap-Ease where to follow a Societal Marketing Concept then they would probably more successful because they are marketing such a new and innovative product which in the long run creates less waist because it is re-usable and is more human because of the trap and release possibility. If they used the Societal Marketing Concept it would augment their products strengths. I think that the group would probably write its mission statement centered around their innovative product because they are too concentrated on their product and concentrated enough on their customer. They would probably write something like, Making a better mousetrap so that all those who trod down our beaten path will benefit. They should take the concentration off of their product and concentrate on their customer. A better mission statement would go something like this and include text w h i c h s a t i s f i e d customers needs or wants; Striving to better satisfy pest e l i m i n a t i n g n e e d s o f o u r customers through innovation and quality. This applies to their current product and gives them room to expand into other areas of vermin or rodent control 2. Martha has targeted women for her product. She feels that women are the best group to target because they dont like the mess or the risks created by traditional mouse traps. This is a good marketing segment to start off with but there are a couple of things that Martha could have improved on. First off, she should have probably segmented women into a couple different groups. In todays world all women dont stay at home and take care of kids. In fact the population of women that do that is rapidly shrinking and being replaced by independent professionals. In effect, by targeting women that stay at home, M a r t h a i s t a r g e t i n g a s h r i n k i n g m a r k e t . S h e c o u l d p r o b a b l y s e g m e n t w o m e n i n t o a couple different categories. For example: working women, single women, house wives, etc. There are also other markets which Martha could target. S o m e other market segments that hold large potential for the TrapE a s e a r e markets like environmentalists, animal lovers, corporate businesses

and families. The Trap-Ease mouse trap is re-useable and therefore is reusable and therefore creates less of a s t r a i n o n t h e e n v i r o n m e n t w h i c h w o u l d m a k e i t a v e r y a t t r a c t i v e t h i n g f o r environmentalists and people who care about the earth. The environmentalist market is also growing as people become more aware of global warming and other problems such as deforestation. Animal lovers would love the Trap-Ease mouse trap because it doesnt require poison or pose the risk of snapping closed on a paw or tongue of a pet. Corporate Businesses would probably like the Trap-Ease mouse trap because of its high quality more futuristic image and the fact that it would create as much of a mess. They would probably be less hesitant to have them sitting around the office. Families with kids should be the primary market segment of TrapEase seeing as it will probably be their largest. Mouse traps and poison pose a very large risk to infants and toddlers and caring mothers and fathers would probably happily buy a product which would better protect their children. 3. It seems that the Trap-Ease mouse trap has positioned itself in the market as being a very innovative and well engineered product. It has done this by winning awards from tradeshows and magazines. If it is better able to connect these features of the mouse traps with t h e n e e d s a n d w a n t s o f t h e i r t a r g e t c o n s u m e r s t h e n t h e y s h o u l d b e a b l e t o g e n e r a t e a larger demand. They could also try to change its position a little bit. Trap-Ease could also position the product as causing fewer waists because it is re-useable or t h e y c o u l d l o w e r i t s c o s t a n d m a k e i t m o r e a f f o r d a b l e . B y m a k i n g i t t h e m o s t affordable, innovative mouse trap on the market they could probably gain some more demand. Another way in which they could position their product would be by having an incredibly good customer service team that could deliver services to their customers that were having problems using the product. By having a good customer service team they could build better relationships with their customers and increase their customer equity. 4 . The marketing mix of a company consists of the four Ps: Product, P r i c e , P l a c e a n d Promotion. Currently Trap-Ease only has one product, their mouse trap. They probably could create a couple different versions of their mouse trap in order to offer more variety. The higher price of their mouse trap seems to be consistent with a quality differentiation strategy but they probably could offer a wider range of prices on the different models of t h e i r t r a p i f t h e y c h o s e t o w i d e n t h e i r p r o d u c t r a n g e . R i g h t n o w t h e y a r e t r y i n g t o distribute their product through stores like Kmart and Safeway. A really good market to hit would probably be the internet. People on in the internet are often times into quality, ease of use, and innovativeness and dont mind spending a little more money to get what they want. It is

also a high profit market because it reduces transportation costs and there are no middle man costs. The promotion of the Trap-Ease mouse trap seems to be one of their largest problems. They should promote over the internet for certain on sites that they think their target market will be visiting and they should also think about putting out ads on TV. In this changing high tech environment magazine ads arent enough anymore. 5 . Trap-Ease Americas competition is any company that creates mouse traps. They face a market in which large volume of low quality low cost mouse traps are sold. There are also poisons that are sold which are a danger to pets and animals as well as the mice they are supposed to kill. There are also other versions of live catch mouse traps out there. An example of one of Trap-Eases competition is dCON who offers both baits and traps. They actually also offer a version of a no touch mouse trap in which you dont have to touch the mouse after you have trapped it. They are selling this for $4.29 which is higher then the suggested retail price for the Trap-Ease mouse trap which is $2.99. This would suggest that Trap-Ease has priced lower then some of its competitors which will give it a pricing advantage. Companies such as Havahart offer traps which h u m a n e l y c a t c h everything from mice to voles and shrews and are competition for the humane factors of the Trap-Ease trap. Other competitors include: Victor, JT Eaton and Riddex. 6 . The first thing I would do to change Trap-Eases marketing strategy would be to increase the amount of people in their marketing team. Although Martha was probably trying to keep down costs by not hiring anyone for her marketing team she made one important mistake. One of the most important things when coming out with a new product is them a r k e t i n g b e c a u s e u n t i l yo u v e c o m m u n i c a t e d t h e b e n e f i t s o f yo u r p r o d u c t t o t h e consumer there will not be sufficient demand for it. Her entry into the market was too small scale and chances are that with such an innovative product that the company will do better in the long run with a larger scale entry. She should have asked for a larger budget and hired more people for the marketing team. She should have then put much more work into the Analysis of her target markets and perhaps expanded her scope of t a r g e t m a r k e t s w h i l e i n c r e a s i n g t h e s e g m e n t a t i o n . T h i s w o u l d a l l o w h e r t o b e t t e r differentiate her product. I would put in operating controls and strategic controls in order to monitor the marketing teams progress and make sure that what they are doing is consistent with the companys goals and strategy. These controls would very important for gathering the information that would form the strategies in the coming years. It would also probably help to do a market audit at some point during the first year just to make sure that things are running

smoothly and it shouldnt cost that much to do one at such an e a r l y s t a g e i n t h e companys development because of the smaller volume of papers to audit.